Hard Times Main Theme

The Mechanization of Human Beings
Hard Times suggests that nineteenth-century Englands overzealous adoption of

industrialization threatens to turn human beings into machines by thwarting the
development of their emotions and imaginations. This suggestion comes forth
largely through the actions of Gradgrind and his follower, Bounderby: as the
former educates the young children of his family and his school in the ways of
fact, that are easily exploited for his own self-interest.
The mechanizing effects of industrialization are compounded by Mr. Gradgrinds
philosophy of rational self-interest. Mr. Gradgrind believes that human nature
can be measured, quantified, and governed entirely by rational rules. Indeed,
his school attempts to turn children into little machines that behave according
to such rules. Dickenss primary goal in Hard Times is to illustrate the dangers of
allowing humans to become like machines, suggesting that without compassion
and imagination, life would be unbearable. Appealing to her father with the
utmost honesty, Louisa is able to make him realize and admit that his
philosophies on life and methods of child rearing are to blame for Louisas
detachment from others.
The Opposition Between Fact and Fancy
While Mr. Gradgrind insists that his children should always stick to the
facts, Hard Times not only suggests that fancy is as important as fact, but it
continually calls into question the difference between fact and fancy. Dickens
suggests that what constitutes so-called fact is a matter of perspective or
opinion. For example, Bounderby believes that factory employees are lazy goodfor-nothings who expect to be fed from a golden spoon. The Hands, in
contrast, see themselves as hardworking and as unfairly exploited by their
employers. These sets of facts cannot be reconciled because they depend upon
perspective.
Gradgrinds children, however, grow up in an environment where all flights of
fancy are discouraged, and they end up with serious social dysfunctions as a
result. Tom becomes a hedonist who has little regard for others, while Louisa
remains unable to connect with others even though she has the desire to do so.
On the other hand, Sissy, who grew up with the circus, constantly indulges in
the fancy forbidden to the Gradgrinds. If Gradgrind had not adopted her, Sissy
would have no guidance, and her future might be precarious.
The Importance of Femininity

During the Victorian era, women were commonly associated with supposedly
feminine traits like compassion, moral purity, and emotional sensitivity. Hard
Times suggests that because they possess these traits, women can counteract
the mechanizing effects of industrialization. Dickens suggests that Mr.
Gradgrinds philosophy of self-interest and calculating rationality has prevented
Louisa from developing her natural feminine traits. Through the various female
characters in the novel, Dickens suggests that feminine compassion is necessary
to restore social harmony.
Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, or literary devices that can help to
develop and inform the texts major themes.
Bounderbys Childhood
Bounderby frequently reminds us that he is Josiah Bounderby of Coketown.
This emphatic phrase usually follows a description of his childhood poverty: he
claims to have been born in a ditch and abandoned by his mother; raised by an
alcoholic grandmother; and forced to support himself by his own labor. From
these ignominious beginnings, he has become the wealthy owner of both a
factory and a bank. Thus, Bounderby represents the possibility of social
mobility, embodying the belief that any individual should be able overcome all
obstacles to successincluding poverty and lack of educationthrough hard
work. Indeed, Bounderby often recites the story of his childhood in order to
suggest that his Hands are impoverished because they lack his ambition and
self-discipline. However, Josiah Bounderby of Coketown is ultimately a fraud.
His mother, Mrs. Pegler, reveals that he was raised by parents who were loving,
albeit poor, and who saved their money to make sure he received a good
education. By exposing Bounderbys real origins, Dickens calls into question the
myth of social mobility. In other words, he suggests that perhaps the Hands
cannot overcome poverty through sheer determination alone, but only through
the charity and compassion of wealthier individuals.
Clocks and Time
Dickens contrasts mechanical or man-made time with natural time, or the
passing of the seasons. In both Coketown and the Gradgrind household, time is
mechanizedin other words, it is relentless, structured, regular, and

monotonous. As the narrator explains, Time went on in Coketown like its own
machine. The mechanization of time is also embodied in the deadly statistical
clock in Mr. Gradgrinds study, which measures the passing of each minute and
hour. However, the novel itself is structured through natural time. For instance,
the titles of its three booksSowing, Reaping, and Garneringallude to
agricultural labor and to the processes of planting and harvesting in accordance
with the changes of the seasons. Similarly, the narrator notes that the seasons
change even in Coketowns wilderness of smoke and brick. These seasonal
changes constitute the only stand that ever was made against its direful
uniformity. By contrasting mechanical time with natural time, Dickens
illustrates the great extent to which industrialization has mechanized human
existence. While the changing seasons provide variety in terms of scenery and
agricultural labor, mechanized time marches forward with incessant regularity.
Mismatched Marriages
There are many unequal and unhappy marriages in Hard Times, including those
of Mr. and Mrs. Gradgrind, Stephen Blackpool and his unnamed drunken wife,
and most pertinently, the Bounderbys. Louisa agrees to marry Mr. Bounderby
because her father convinces her that doing so would be a rational decision. He
even cites statistics to show that the great difference in their ages need not
prevent their mutual happiness. However, Louisas consequent misery as
Bounderbys wife suggests that love, rather than either reason or convenience,
must be the foundation of a happy marriage.
Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, or colors used to represent abstract
ideas or concepts.
Staircase
When Mrs. Sparsit notices that Louisa and Harthouse are spending a lot of time
together, she imagines that Louisa is running down a long staircase into a dark
pit of shame and ruin at the bottom. This imaginary staircase represents her
belief that Louisa is going to elope with Harthouse and consequently ruin her
reputation forever.
Pegasus
Mr. Slearys circus entertainers stay at an inn called the Pegasus Arms. Inside
this inn is a theatrical pegasus, a model of a flying horse with golden stars
stuck on all over him. The pegasus represents a world of fantasy and beauty
from which the young Gradgrind children are excluded. While Mr. Gradgrind
informs the pupils at his school that wallpaper with horses on it is unrealistic
simply because horses do not in fact live on walls, the circus folk live in a world
in which horses dance the polka and flying horses can be imagined, even if they
do not, in fact, exist. The very name of the inn reveals the contrast between the
imaginative and joyful world of the circus and Mr. Gradgrinds belief in the
importance of fact.
Smoke Serpents
At a literal level, the streams of smoke that fill the skies above Coketown are the
effects of industrialization. However, these smoke serpents also represent the
moral blindness of factory owners like Bounderby. Because he is so concerned
with making as much profit as he possibly can, Bounderby interprets the
serpents of smoke as a positive sign that the factories are producing goods and
profit. Thus, he not only fails to see the smoke as a form of unhealthy pollution,
but he also fails to recognize his own abuse of the Hands in his factories. The
smoke becomes a moral smoke screen that prevents him from noticing his
workers miserable poverty. Through its associations with evil, the word
serpents evokes the moral obscurity that the smoke creates.
Fire
When Louisa is first introduced, in Chapter 3 of Book the First, the narrator
explains that inside her is a fire with nothing to burn, a starved imagination
keeping life in itself somehow. This description suggests that although Louisa
seems coldly rational, she has not succumbed entirely to her fathers prohibition
against wondering and imagining. Her inner fire symbolizes the warmth created
by her secret fancies in her otherwise lonely, mechanized existence.
Consequently, it is significant that Louisa often gazes into the fireplace when
she is alone, as if she sees things in the flames that otherslike her rigid father
and brothercannot see. However, there is another kind of inner fire in Hard
Timesthe fires that keep the factories running, providing heat and power for
the machines. Fire is thus both a destructive and a life-giving force. Even
Louisas inner fire, her imaginative tendencies, eventually becomes destructive:
her repressed emotions eventually begin to burn within her like an

unwholesome fire. Through this symbol, Dickens evokes the importance of
imagination as a force that can counteract the mechanization of human nature.

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The Mechanization of Human Beings

Hard Times suggests that nineteenth-century Englands overzealous adoption of

The Importance of Femininity

mechanizedin other words, it is relentless, structured, regular, and

her repressed emotions eventually begin to burn within her like an

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